The end of the school year means special occasions for schools and families. For the Free Press, it means special sections about students and children.
In recent weeks, the Free Press has published three sections celebrating the accomplishments of students and information important to them:
Class Acts, in its 16th year, features top scholars from around the state and Detroit, and valedictorians and other top students from the metro area.
Summer Dreams, in its ninth year, is the only fund-raiser among the sections. The project is designed to send disadvantaged youngsters to summer camps. Readers donate money, and that is matched by Skillman Foundation grants. Last year, almost $1.2 million was raised. This year’s donations are still being tallied.
Michigan Scholar Athletes, in its ninth year, is an annual tribute to student-athletes who excel in academics. This year it featured 650 students in the state.
Anne Musial, community relations assistant and lead editor on Class Acts, says it’s an all-consuming job for the four to six weeks preceding publication of a section. Class Acts is her biggest project of the year, but she also plays a key role in the annual Summer Dreams section.
Musial sends out nomination letters to camp organizations and helps select the featured agencies. Deputy news editor Jim Finkelstein marshaled a group of 34 journalists to produce this year’s 36-page section.
The combined costs for newsprint alone for the Summer Dreams, Class Acts and Scholar Athletes sections is about $66,000. If you add the salaries of the journalists, the costs approach $110,000.
Class Acts, said Musial, gives the Free Press “a good opportunity to credit the kids who are the best and the brightest. It’s amazing to put together, and see that these students have accomplished so much and have such a bright future in front of them.”
Zones editor Marcia Abramson does much of the work assembling Class Acts, even pushing deadlines to accept late information from schools. For those schools that missed the extended deadlines, valedictorians and other top seniors will be listed in the Your Schools section on the briefs page of the newspaper.
Shelly Solon, assistant sports editor for prep sports, goes through the same painstaking work each spring to assemble and publish the Michigan Scholar Athlete section.
Sportswriter Mick McCabe, a Free Press journalist for 31 years, said in his column in the May 23 edition: “This section is special to us at the Free Press because it honors those who will lead our state and nation. These pages profile some amazing young people who are our hope for the future.”
